Bobby Fischer's Winning Streaks: 1963 to 1965

by Johannes Fischer

9/30/2014 – When Fabiano Caruana started the Sinquefield Cup with 7.0/7, the chess world wondered whether this was indeed the best performance ever. Memories of Bobby's Fischer legendary 11.0/11 in the US-Championship 1963/1964 were evoked. But it is little known that Fischer's fantastic victory was only part of a much longer winning streak.

Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase 14 and enjoy your chess even more.

Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase 14 and enjoy your chess even more.

1962 was a disappointing year for 19-year old Bobby Fischer. In the Candidates tournament in Curacao he failed to qualify for the World Champion match against Mikhail Botvinnik, finishing fourth behind Tigran Petrosian, Paul Keres, and Efim Geller. What is more, he felt cheated by - as he called it - "the Russians". In a famous article in Sports Illustrated titled "The Russians Have Fixed World Chess" Fischer publicly accused the Soviet players of collusion, and vowed not to play in the World Championship cycle until the rules were changed.

Bobby Fischer during the Chess Olympiad in Leipzig 1960

But during the Olympiad in Varna 1962 Fischer had a chance to take revenge. He played against World Champion Mikhail Botvinnik and this encounter later became one of the most controversial games in chess history. After reaching a clear advantage in the opening and an almost won endgame Fischer spoiled his advantage to a draw.

The whole Olympiad was a disappointment for the young American. With three wins, five draws, and three losses he scored only 50% on first board - not nearly enough for someone who considered himself to be the best player of the world. However, the year ended well and in the US-Championship 1962/1963 Fischer won his fifth US-title. From 1957 to 1966 he started in eight US-Championships winning every single one of them. But this time the race for the title was only decided in the final round. After ten rounds Fischer and Arthur Bisguier both led with 7.0/10 and as luck would have it, they had to play each other.

In the course of their careers Bisguier and Fischer played no less than 15 tournament games against each other. Bisguier won the first, in the 3rd Rosenwald Tournament 1956. The second, played in the US-Open Championship 1957, was a draw. But the next 13 were all won by Fischer. This time Bisguier overlooked a tactical shot in a Berlin Defense and soon succumbed to a mating attack in the endgame.

A good beginning of a fantastic year. A glance at the recently published ChessBase-DVD on Fischer, the first of the ChessBase Master Class Series, reveals how good 1963 was for Fischer. The DVD features analyses by Dorian Rogozenco, Oliver Reeh, Mihail Marin and Karsten Müller, who scrutinize Fischer's treatment of opening, middlegame and endgame, but also contains a database with all known Fischer games, most of them annotated. And this database shows how Fischer won almost every game he played in 1963.

Fischer's next tournament after the US-Championship was the Western Open, a Swiss tournament, which Fischer won smoothly with 7.5 from 8. After the future World Champion had won the first three rounds a certain Paul Poschel managed to hold him to a draw in round four - for a long time to come Fischer's last draw in a tournament game.

After his draw against Poschel Fischer finished the Western Open with 4.0/4 and ever the perfectionist he also won his next tournament, the New York State Open, another Swiss, and incidentally the last Swiss Fischer ever played, with 7.0/7, thus extending his winning streak to 11 games. Next on the agenda was the famous US-Championship 1963/1964.

In the first round Fischer played against Edmar Mednis and was lucky not to suffer his first defeat of 1963. After ambitious but not particularly convincing play by Fischer, Mednis had every chance to win.

After this escape Fischer just smashed the opposition. Some of his opponents had drawing chances, most lost clearly. A particularly nice game was Fischer's 21-move win against Pal Benko in the penultimate round - incidentally Fischer's last game of 1963.

Pal Benko

Altogether Fischer had played 26 tournament games in 1963, scoring an amazing 25.5/26. He finished the US-Championship in style by also winning his first game of 1964 - against Anthony Saidy, thus winning the tournament with 11.0/11 and extending his winning streak to 22 won tournament games. Fortune indeed smiled on the young prodigy: As Karsten Müller pointed out in his detailed analysis (on the above mentioned DVD) of the final part of the Saidy-Fischer game, Saidy missed a draw in a tricky ending.

However, Fischer's win against Saidy was his only tournament game in 1964. Still angry about FIDE, he did not play in the Interzonal in Amsterdam, and he did not play in the Olympiad in Tel Aviv in 1964. Instead he toured the US giving simultaneous exhibitions in the whole country.

Bobby Fischer - intense and controversial

The first tournament he played again was the Capablanca Memorial in Havana 1965. However, due to political tension between the US and communist Cuba the US-Government did not allow Fischer to travel to Havana. But apparently Fischer was so keen to take part that he agreed to play per telex from New York, an arduous and time-consuming process. But Fischer started well, winning the first round against Heinz Lehmann from West-Germany. In the second round Fischer beat former World Champion Vassily Smyslov, thus extending his winning streak to 24 won tournament games in a row. But before reaching the magic number 25, Fischer's fantastic streak finally came to an end: with a draw against the Romanian Victor Ciocaltea in round three of the Capablanca Memorial.

Bobby Fischer during his 1972 match against Boris Spassky in Reykjavik

Johannes FischerJohannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".

See also

7/4/2017 – In the final week of June 1972 the chess world was in turmoil. The match between World Champion Boris Spassky and his challenger Bobby Fischer was scheduled to begin, in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik, on July 1st. But there was no sign of Fischer. The opening ceremony took place without him, and the first game, scheduled for July 2nd, was postponed. Then finally, in the early hours of July 4th, Fischer arrived. Frederic Friedel narrates.

See also

3/21/2017 – If there is one player in chess, whose mystique and fascination know no bounds, it is the legendary Bobby Fischer. Ask GM Daniel King, chess author and video maker extraordinaire, who asked the patrons of his channel what they most wanted to see him look at. The result is a series analyzing games by the former World Champion, Bobby Fischer and starts with a positional masterpiece he played when he was 16.

Video

Tired of spending hours and hours on the boring theory of your favourite opening? Then here is your solution, play an Anti-Sicilian with 3.Bb5 against 2...d6 or 2...Nc6, and 3.d3 against 2...e6. In 60 minutes you will get a crash course in how to avoid mainstream theory and in understanding the ideas of this Anti-Sicilian setup. After these 60 minutes you should be able to survive the Sicilian for a long time, without being bothered by new developments found by engine x supported by an x-core machine. Now that it finally comes down to understanding, let's play chess!

Discuss

Great article. So much is made of Bobby Fischer's great streak in the 1970-1971 Candidates matches, that his fantastic runs in 1963-1965 are overlooked.

KevinC 9/30/2014 05:40

Fischer's 11-0, while great, can't be remotely compared to Caruana's streak, which was carried out against the best in the world.

AngeloPardi 9/30/2014 08:33

Well, the competition was stronger in 1972-1973

Pentium Infinite 9/30/2014 11:55

Seems Caruana's performance got Fischer's fanatics off guard so they will bring nonsense to prove how good he was. Hehehehehehe. Get real Jose, Fischer got schooled.

KevinC 10/1/2014 01:49

AngeloPardi, while they were more revered, I doubt that players in 1972 were stronger than today. Play always gets stronger with time, and with the advent of computers, it has gotten A LOT stronger over the years.

jedi mind tricks 10/1/2014 12:21

Fischer was one of a kind. No one will ever come close. Not Caruana, not Carlsen... Nobody.

frankiekam 10/1/2014 12:38

24 won tournament games in a row! Incredible feat. What are the odds against someone hitting so many consecutive wins today?

NJD 10/1/2014 03:17

Fischer v Rubinetti at the 1970 Pama de Mallorca Interzonal was the start of another great streak...

DELTAMAX2020 10/1/2014 03:56

Who would win a backgomon match? Bruce Lee or Bobby Fischer?

Petrosianic 10/1/2014 05:30

"Still angry about FIDE, he did not play in the Interzonal in Amsterdam,"

This point is severely glossed over. What exactly was Fischer supposed to angry at FIDE for? They restructured the entire Candidates system at his request.

According to Chess Life, Fischer gave contradictory reasons for his non-participation in the Interzonal. One story was that the prize fund was too small. One was that the schedule was too long (Fischer is supposed to have made a crack to the effect that to become Challenger, you had to play about half as many games as Capablanca played in his whole life.) One explanation was that it conflicted with his simul tour (!). There were some other explanations, but it seems thta the real one is that Fischer was still hoping to arrange a pre-war style direct challenge to the champion without having to qualify. There was certainly nothing to be angry at FIDE for.

Petrosianic 10/1/2014 05:34

If we're going to include games against Class players from Swisses, William Martz is supposed to have won 100 consecutive rated games at one point. Nobody can touch that.

Jrcasablanca 10/2/2014 12:38

Winning all the games in a couple of early 60s US Swiss does not seem that big a deal

Interesting how poor Fischer's results were in 1962 shows he was not ready for the title match yet.
regardless o whether Petrosian Geller and Keres had pre arranged draws In 62 Candidates. Fischer was already out of it in the early rounds losing to Benko and Korchnoi with White

iSeeThis 10/2/2014 04:37

most intuitive = Fischer
conditionally strongest at a point of time = Caruna
top in history = Carlsen